Cinnimint
by Kitten-Prince
Summary: Ami's reflection on her first kiss, and all the kisses that followed. Ami/Senshi pairing.


AUTHORS NOTE: Just a random plot bunny that happened into my brain, demanded that I write it even though I needed sleep, fought me and instead of being a one-sitting story took me almost two weeks to finish. Bugger it.

SUMMARY: Ami's thoughts as she looks back on kissing the senshi.

DISCLAIMER: None are mine. {Insert Sad Fangirl Face Here}

Rei was my first kiss. She was just as surprised as I was. She told me that later. It wasn't planned. Hadn't really ever crossed my mind before that moment actually. I blame Minako for putting the idea into my head. Later, when I confessed that to her, she seemed quite pleased with herself. I should have guessed that.

She'd been talking earlier that day during our study group. I had been attempting to block her out and actually study as usual. I did a pretty good job. Just catching bits and pieces of their conversation. She'd been going on about some new manga series or soap opera. Telling Makoto all about how the two main characters had finally kissed. How the girl had been going crazy. Just ranting and raving and the guy just couldn't snap her out of it. Finally he just grabbed her by the shoulders and kissed her. Then of course they'd professed their love for each other and all was right with the world. Pure unrealistic fluff was what I thought. I was content to read my book, and suck happily on my favorite candy. My weakness if I ever had one, aside from love notes that is. I loved those cinnimint starbursts.

But there I was hours later, left alone with Rei when Minako and Makoto took off to hit the mall and Usagi skipped merrily away to meet Mamoru for a date. Rei had snapped. It doesn't happen very often. Less and less these days. But back then everything was still so fresh and new and intense. None of us were able to hold it together all the time. She was going off. Teetering between depressed and angry. About Minako, or Usagi or Mamoru. I can't really remember anymore. Neither can she. Doesn't really seem important now. I was trying to calm her down. To talk her through it. But she was past the point of logic. She was crying now. Flailing her arms. Gasping for breath and I remember thinking, I have to snap her out of this somehow.

My hands were on her shoulders. Shaking her wasn't working. It was like I wasn't even there. And then, out of the blue, the memory of Minako's drama popped in my head. And before I had even figured out what I was doing, I kissed her. Not a deep kiss. Not a strong one. Just lips to lips. In my haze I remember thinking how warm and soft her lips were. And then it hit me. Exactly what I was doing, and I pulled away from her as fast as I could. She was just standing there, watching me with wide eyes. Very slowly she raised a hand to her lips and just sort of touched them, looking down at her hand like she couldn't quite believe that had happened.

I was horrified. I covered my own mouth and fought down my blush. I had just kissed a girl. I had just kissed Rei. Sailor Mars. I had just taken her first kiss. And incidentally, my own. She looked back up at me, as the thought hit her too and I panicked. I stuttered out an apology, which Rei later told me was an incoherent mumbling, and turned to flee.

I didn't even get to turn the whole way around before her hand caught my wrist. I let her spin me around, fully prepared to accept whatever punishment she deemed necessary. Imagine my surprise when her hand went around the back of my neck and SHE kissed ME. I froze, completely. Still trying to process what had happened. What was happening. But Rei took the lead as she so often does and pushed me back against the door, wrapping both arms around me. It didn't take very long before everything became blurry, and I didn't even realize it when I started kissing her back. It was a release.

Rei's kisses, just like the rest of us for the most part, champion her element. I have spoken to a few other girls about this and they agree. She is fire and passion. Consuming and intense. Always, her lips burn mine. Devouring me as a flame would. That kiss, she was desperate. Chasing away demons that she didn't fully conquer for decades after. That first kiss was needy and I could feel it. She buried herself in me, searching for a relief that I couldn't give her. Searching and wanting and hurting. I could feel that as she pressed against me. I could feel her hurt. And though I had absolutely no experience with the subject, I did the best I could to take her pain away.

Rarely does Rei ever show that vulnerable side anymore. To me anyway. Our subsequent kisses have been much more equal. Both willing partners. On even ground. She is still one of only a few who can bring me to my knees with relative ease however. And she does so on a fairly regular basis. Her warmth consumes me, her heat owns me, her intensity takes my breath away. And I know she takes a certain amount of devious joy and pride in using her fire to melt my ice.

The second person I kissed was Michiru. At the time, I blushed so hard I thought I'd faint. She told me later that she thought the same .Looking back now, I suppose it isn't that surprising. As water senshi she and I always had, and still have a certain connection. Just as Rei and Minako share love and passion, and Haruka and Makoto bond over their strength. Rei and Michiru have their gift of foresight. Makoto and Minako remain the only two that can actually go boy hunting with any degree of seriousness, and Setsuna and I can go on for hours about any number of topics that could easily put the other girls to sleep. We are all close in our own ways. But elementally, she was my first rival, and my first friend.

We had just finished another race. Twenty laps. A long one for us. Generally we challenged each other to smaller, shorter sprints. It kept the games lighter, and more fun. This one was grueling. We'd both pushed ourselves hard. Sadly, the outcome of that particular race was the same as most of them are. She beat me. Not by as much as usual, but still she was nearly a half a lap ahead. Since then, I have managed to beat her on only three separate occasions. And I have gleefully celebrated each one as the rare treat that it is. Losing to Michiru is nothing for me to be ashamed of anymore. She is an Outer, and therefore meant to be stronger than I am. Stings the pride a bit though.

So maybe because I was exhausted from the race, maybe because I'd missed a question on a quiz earlier that I thought for sure I'd gotten correct, or maybe even because Makoto was in fact boy hunting again and I didn't yet know why that affected me so. Either way, I was apparently quite emotional that day. I was hanging onto the edge of the pool, my head in my arms, trying to will away the sudden depression I found encroaching. Suddenly, a dangling candy was waved in my line of sight and I blinked to see it was a cinnimint. She smiled at me. Told me it was a peace offering. Giggling like she does.

I took the treat with a sigh. Stuffed it in my mouth so I didn't have to talk. She was asking me what was wrong in that not too invasive but still completely accurate Michiru way of hers, and I was doing my best to avoid her questions. I was spiraling downward fast. I wasn't good enough, fast enough, smart enough, pretty enough. Around that point, I became aware of a very close presence. I remember looking up and being surprised to see Michiru so close. In my personal bubble close. Right up against me with one hand on either side of me on the edge of the pool close. She told me later that I flushed so red she thought I'd boil the water around us. I threw a pillow at her.

Then though, she just cocked her head at me and smiled. 'You have no idea.' She told me. I didn't know what she meant and when I opened my mouth to ask her, she made her move.

Cool and soft. That was my first impression. Her kiss was soothing me, like the ocean does. Michiru, just like Rei, kisses with her element. The sea I've since discovered is bipolar. And sometimes the sea is calm and relaxing. Gentle waves and tranquil waters. That was this kiss. I got lost in it, lost in her. Lost in the soothing feel of being against her. I remember putting my arms around her, floating there against the edge of the pool. I remember the little clicking noises the mint made against my teeth when I tasted her tongue for the first time. And I remember the cold water and her warm body.

It is not always that way with Michiru. The sea can go from calm to tumultuous in minutes, and she is no different. Many times when I am with her, as I have lost count of how many times I have gone to her or she to me since that day, it is the same as the first. Calm, soothing, relaxing. Our water elements mingle and merge and she heals me as the sea does. And then there are the stormy days when she leaves me breathless and begging for more.

Haruka agrees with me on this. She says that sometimes she doesn't know at all what kind of day she's going to have. Perhaps a calm, quiet night. Or an emotional hurricane that leaves disaster in it's wake. She also says she doesn't really mind either way. Of course. But for me, those days surprise me. Intensity that blows me away, and a desire that leaves me weak kneed and glassy eyed. Michiru thinks it's funny to watch me try and catch my breath on those days. Mostly because as soon as I do, she takes it away all over again.

My third and fourth kisses weren't nearly so memorable. Well, not third or fourth kisses. Rei and I were by then meeting regularly every few days. It was an excellent way to blow off steam, and to reconnect with each other. To really feel integrated as a group, or at the very least as a team. And while Michiru and I were not regular, we would put a kiss or two on the line as bets when we raced. And even though I almost always lost, I didn't seem to mind nearly as much.

More accurately then, I should say that the third and fourth persons that I kissed were not nearly so memorable. The third was a boy from one of my college classes. The fourth, a girl from my senior year med school. He was nice enough, cute enough, and after mountains of peer pressure to finally hit the dating scene as Minako had so eagerly done, I agreed. Though as a side note I must confess, I don't think Minako 'hit' the dating scene so much as so completely ko'd it.

He was a gentleman, intelligent, and it was a pleasant enough date. I let him kiss me that night, when he dropped me off at home. I suppose, he wasn't half bad at it. But when compared to the power of fire and the force of the very sea itself, the poor boy didn't really compare. I don't even remember his name anymore.

Her story was much the same. Near six foot tall, brown hair, and green eyes. I get the resemblance now, but then I didn't know what it was that drew me to her. She was beautiful, smart, and, for a reason that I still cannot define, she was interested in me. She subtly and eventually not so subtly pursued me for most of the school year. She earned everything from full-scale blushes, to avoidance and irritation. I thought she was playing with me as a joke with some of the other students. When she finally worked up the courage to ask me out at the end of the year, I completely shut her down. And when she asked why not, I told her my theory. She laughed at me then, and in much the same voice Michiru had first used years before told me 'You really have no idea do you?'.

She was…. A much better kisser than he had been. She was attentive, and thorough. She made me feel loved, feel sexy, feel wanted. I never let it go too far. A 'base' or two at most as Minako would put it. And though nothing permanent ever came from us, her number stayed in my phone for several years. Up until the day she met her wife. The last time I checked, she was nearly 60, and her wife, a doctor, was 65. They had three children.

I learned something quite valuable from both of them. From him, I learned that my preference was most definitely female. Men aren't bad to look at really. But they don't really do anything for me either. I haven't kissed another boy since. I was not the first senshi to come to the mostly lesbian conclusion, nor was I the last.

From her, I learned how to be touched. How to trust. That there were people on the planet that found me attractive. That wanted me. And not just because I fought evil with them side by side on a nearly weekly basis. More importantly, from her I learned my type. It was only a few years later that I managed to put two and two together and discover why tall and brunette and sparkling green eyes brought me to my knees. Rei smiled at me when I told her my epiphany. She patted my head and gave me a candy and asked what had taken me so long.

Next came Minako, or should I say Venus. That one probably surprised me the most. I had been walking home from Rei's after an evening of her company. It had started to rain, not that I minded in the slightest, and I was taking my time. I remember almost choking on my mint as something suddenly grabbed hold of my arm and yanked me into an alleyway. It was our fearless leader, with a wild look in her eyes. I asked what was wrong. No answer. I asked if I needed to transform. Again no answer. She just stared at me, so lost. Finally she asked me 'Were you just with Rei?'

It wasn't a secret, not really. Haruka obviously knew about Michiru and I. And Rei and I were not the first ones to find comfort in each other. I was fairly certain that at that point Minako and Makoto were meeting up as well as Makoto and Haruka. I didn't feel the need to lie and told her yes. She touched my lips with her hand, staring at them intently, and I remember thinking how soft our gloves were. She asked me what Rei tasted like and before I could even think of a response, she pressed her lips to mine.

Much like with Rei, that first kiss was not the norm of what was to come. It was needy and intense and messy and even then I knew that it wasn't me she was kissing so desperately. Even so, I responded to her and gave her what I could.

The guardian of Love and Beauty kisses with those very powers. And in later encounters, when it was very much me who she was kissing, I felt them. Minako's kiss can make you feel loved. Second perhaps only to the Princess with that power. It is a warmth that rushes through you and you simply feel happy. When she wants to show you what you mean to her, it is easy to get lost in the feeling. She is also quite the temptress and when she wants to make sure you are aware of exactly how beautiful she is, she does so with ease. I am not blind. I am aware of her beauty just as I am aware of all the others. Surprisingly, it is she who is the most insecure about her looks. So when Minako would kiss me with that intensity, with that uncertain question, I felt no shame in showing her how beautiful I think she is.

Rei has since taken over that duty with Minako. And from the near permanent smile on both of their faces I would think she's handling it quite well. It is without a doubt one of the most memorable moments in my life. It was several months after my first kiss with Minako, and I was with Rei at the shrine. We were quite enjoying ourselves on her bed, oblivious to the world, when I got that little tingling sensation in the back of my neck. The one when you feel when you are being watched. She felt it too and we both looked up to see Minako sitting on the ground a few feet away.

Naturally we were both embarrassed, separating from each other as fast as we could, but she just smiled at us. Apparently, though she did not say anything about this until later, watching us together was quite beautiful, and arousing. I'm glad she held off on telling me that. I might've fainted otherwise. At the time she just stood and moved over to me. I didn't move and with Rei watching, she kissed me softly. I watched her with wide eyes as she then turned to Rei, who flushed darker than I ever have. They just sort of smiled at each other for a moment, then moved together as one. It was amazing to watch. Absolutely beautiful. And the image of their first kiss has stayed with me after all this time.

Not surprisingly, Haruka came next. By now we were all in our seventies, though we didn't look a day beyond mid-twenties at most. The time of Crystal Tokyo was upon us, and it was even harder to fight for than we'd expected. Every demon, every portal, every evil underling who'd ever had it out for the Moon Kingdom came out of the woodworks to challenge the power of the Crystal. Back then battles were daily, often three and four back to back. We were all exhausted and stretched thin.

I had been with Michiru, patrolling some coast line or another, for a very brutal few weeks. We'd finally made it home only to find that Haruka was gone on a patrol of her own with Makoto. Almost dying every day for weeks has a way of getting the adrenaline going, of making you appreciate being alive. So we appreciated it together. She was distracted, and she was missing Haruka. And though I felt I was a poor substitute, I was giving her all the comfort that I could. A wind rushed over us and I remember thinking how odd it was that the wind was warm when it was so cold outside. Moments later she pulled away, gave me a strange look and giggled. Before I could even form a coherent thought she asked 'Are you just going to sit there all night?'

I remember being very confused before I heard a low chuckle from across the room. There was Haruka smiling at us. I got very nervous, very fast. Of course Haruka knew about Michiru and I, there wasn't really the need for secrecy, but to have her there watching me with her fiancé was quite unnerving. Michiru didn't move from atop me when Haruka crossed the room. I had been there for Rei and Minako's first kiss, but to have two people kiss less than a foot away from you, while one of them is still laying against you, is a whole different experience. That, and Haruka and Michiru have that, star-struck cherry blossom coolness about them. That something extra that had us Inners swooning over them for decades. I guess it shouldn't have surprised me then that their kiss would be just as hypnotic. I felt as out of breath as they were.

When they finally separated for air, Haruka thanked me for taking care of Michiru for her. She thanked me, very thoroughly. Kissing Haruka is exactly like spending time with her. She is flirtatious and teasing. Always with the teasing. It tears you between never wanting to leave her embrace, wanting just a little bit more, and thwacking the back of her head. Apparently, I am one of only three who agree with the last part. Minako and Makoto swoon for her and have no desire to do anything with her but more. Setsuna and Michiru on the other hand say they know exactly what I'm talking about. When Haruka turns playful, you are very much hers to do with, or not do with, as she pleases. Of course, she is also very good at what she does and I rarely mind being under her control.

Serenity was my next. And she was very much Serenity by then, not just little Usagi Tsukino. The fighting was nearly over then, and she and Endymion were slowly building the Kingdom into the glorious future we'd been fighting for. I was eighty-seven years old the day my Mother passed away.

I'd known it was coming. I was with her there in the hospital when she took her last breath. Even today the thought brings a hitch to my throat. But then, I was devastated. The world ended for me, and I had no idea how to cope. Weeks went by though I didn't know it. It was only later when Rei finally told me just how long I'd been holed up. I stopped going to work, I wasn't eating, I wouldn't even see the others. They tried. They all came to hold me, talk to me, console me. Makoto came nearly every day, but I couldn't face her. I couldn't pull myself out of it. Mother had been my only family, and it hurt so deeply.

And then one day I woke up and Serenity was just there, sitting beside me. I could see on her face the hurt I felt and I was ashamed. It had never occurred to me that she could feel my pain. She told me it was okay, and I fell into her arms. She held me through the flood of tears and when I had finally cried myself out I looked up into her eyes and she ever so softly kissed me.

I wouldn't, couldn't ever describe that kiss as romantic. Nor was it physical. It was pure love. It was childish Usagi and shy Ami. It was Sailor Moon and Sailor Mercury. It was my Princess taking care of her fallen guardian. It was the only time I have ever kissed her. I know she went to Minako when her parents died. And when Rei's Granddad passed she and Usagi were inseparable for weeks. What Rei and Usagi had, have, the rest of us have never questioned. It is not a issue of jealousy, nor of concern. It is just they way things are. But for a split second, as her softness touched me, I was jealous that Rei got this feeling more often.

Everything negative, everything sad, everything dark in my life was just obliterated. I could feel her light, feel her energy, her power just wash through me completely. My heart felt lighter, my soul felt cleansed, even all the aches and pains in my body seemed to vanish. She healed me with the power of the Crystal, with the power of her heart. I have never felt my devotion to her and her vision as strongly as I did that day.

The next thing I knew I woke up to Makoto sitting by my side. She told me that I'd passed out and Serenity had called for her to be here when I woke up. The warmth and comfort and love that I saw in her eyes gave me hope. I miss my Mother every day, but I have survived.

It was some years later when a new name was added to my list. The Kingdom was settling down. Skirmishes had been whittled down to the few youma who would accidentally pop in from the Negaverse. We all held regular jobs now, and regular hobbies. One hobby I'd become quite passionate about was a strategy game that had been created during the war. It was a complex world I could immerse myself in. A wonderful way to flex my mind and the only one who could put up any kind of defense was Setsuna.

Our games could go on for months at times. Less if we were both feeling particularly aggressive. Thousands of strategy variations kept us glued to the board for hours. Rei said once she had been reading in the room we were playing in. She watched as it literally took Setsuna over an hour to make a single move. I never noticed that much time passed. While waiting for her I was too engrossed in what my return move would be. How would I respond if she attacked here? Or pushed forward here? Or retreated there?

In the middle of an intense session in the middle of a long game that had stalemated for weeks, Haruka asked if we had anything riding on the game. We said no. She said we should at least have a small bet going. We shrugged. She said perhaps whoever won could ask the other for anything they'd like. We agreed. She asked if we had anything in mind. I didn't. It was then that Setsuna moved her air forces against my weakened coastal stronghold and I tuned the wind senshi out.

A month later, and the last of my forces fell. I admitted defeat and we washed our hands of it. I remembered our deal with Haruka, and asked Setsuna if she knew what she wanted. She said yes, but asked that I come with her first. I remember being very confused as we walked into her kitchen and she set about making us tea. I waited as patiently as I could, as patience was very often the key with her, and I noted the smirk in her eyes when she handed me my cup and asked me what I thought of it. I sipped.

It was cinnimint! I hadn't seen those candies since before the wars began and had nearly forgotten the taste. I asked her how, and she said she'd been messing around with flavors, and had stumbled upon it. I was euphoric, happily draining my cup, and asked her again if she knew what she wanted. I remember jokingly adding that for this tea, I'd do anything. She laughed, I swear to the Kamis that she blushed, and asked for a kiss.

Had it been decades earlier, I probably would have blushed so hard I fainted. But this far down the line, I only smiled at her and agreed. But I was curious, and asked her why that was what she wanted. She told me that that she'd recently been privy to a conversation between two people who had kissed me, and one who hadn't. The one who hadn't wanted to know what it was like, and the ones who had were doing their best to explain. Their description had piqued her curiosity and she wanted to see for herself. Though she later admitted to being curious about me for years before. I was more than confused now. In our little group, obviously excluding Mamoru and Hotaru, there were only two people who I had not yet kissed. He was, well, a him. And Serenity's him. She was too young, even though she was 70 by now. To all of us she would always be little Hotaau, part of Chibi-Usa's generation. So out of the two that were left, one of them was sitting in front of me. She told me I could say no if I liked. But I'd had a small crush on her for oh, a couple decades, so it wasn't a hard decision.

Kissing her for the first time was deep and wonderful. Her lips were soft and warm and tasted like tea. The power I felt from her was incredible. Rei and Minako say they feel it too. The loneliness she felt before we were all reborn. That need to not be alone anymore. The need for love. A love I easily gave to her. She was an experienced partner, very dedicated, very gentle. I'm not sure if it had to do with her element or not, but I could get lost in her easily for hours without even realizing it. Like time stopped. Quickly our meetings became another battle of wits we engaged in. Each one pushing further. Testing and teasing each other. I spent many nights with her after that. I spend quite a few with her still. After that first time, I remember I asked her if I met her expectations. If the description she'd heard was accurate. She smiled at me, set about making me another cup of tea and said 'Every word.'

Makoto came last. A fact that still causes pretty much everyone to tease us incessantly. It wasn't that we were avoiding moments when they came to us. On the contrary, as soon as I had discovered my feelings for her I'd looked for opportunities. They never appeared. I'd just assumed my affections were one sided, and let our friendship stay at the level it was. I had no absolutely no idea, as usual apparently, about the reality of the situation. It very cold that day, not even a year since Setsuna. And from the start everything about my relationship with Makoto was different than the others. How it felt to be in her arms, how it felt to get lost in her eyes. How cliché is it to say that her kiss was electric? But it was. I felt sparks everywhere, but I was so calm too. It was just so right. It was the only time, aside from Rei, that I made the first move. And the day that I first kissed Makoto, was also the day that I first went to bed with her.

When I first found out that Ami and Rei had kissed, it blew my mind. Shy quiet little Ami and reserved Priestess Rei? I thought Minako was losing it. That she was just making it up out of boredom, or jealousy. I couldn't believe it. But then, some months later, Minako came to me again. Not only was Ami making out with Rei regularly, but now with Michiru too. I had no idea where she got all the inside knowledge from. She always was good at that. Minako was irritated at Ami. Wasn't Rei enough for her? I was irritated at Michiru, wasn't Haruka enough for her? And we were both hurt. Rei and Minako had always been close, just as Ami and I had. Why hadn't they come to us? It was this hurt and confusion and irritation that pushed Minako to jump me that day. Scared the crap outta me at first. Though I suppose I didn't really fight it too hard.

Things seemed to settle down for a while until about halfway through college. Minako was pushing Ami hard into seeing some guy from one of her classes. Secretly, I think she was just trying to her away from Rei. Or at least get someone else into dating as heavily as she was. Sure I went on a few, usually at Minako's insistence, but they never really held my interest. I knew where my heart was, even if Minako was still in serious denial about hers. When Ami agreed, I couldn't help myself, I pulled a Minako and followed them. He seemed nice enough but when I saw them kiss, I swear I felt something inside me snap. So I went to the nearest gym and beat the hell out of whatever I could find there.

Imagine my surprise when I found Haruka. She showed me a way to take my mind off Ami, and I have to admit that it worked very well. Haruka was, and still is, excellent at taking obliterating the world around you. It's hard to focus at all with her actually. An extra plus was Ami never saw whoever he was again. So, for a while, I got lost in Haruka, or in Minako, and everything seemed fine.

Then, near the end of Ami's med school, someone else came up. It was Rei who told me about her. About how Ami had been pretty much pursued since the first day of class. And how finally, Ami had started seeing her. She was smiling when she told me. I didn't know why until I tracked, or stalked as Minako would say, them on a date. My jaw literally fell open when I saw Ami kissing someone who could easily have been my twin. Tall, brown hair, green eyes, I think I was in shock. I asked Minako what she thought it meant. She just laughed at me, a lot, and asked what it would mean if I found a short blue-haired cutie in my botany class and started making out with her. She shut up though when I asked her what it meant when she kept going on dates with tall, black haired, violet eyed hotties.

She stayed in Ami's life for years. Several times we'd be together doing whatever and they'd start texting. I'm still not sure if the smile that girl put on her face made me jealous that it wasn't me, or happy that it pretty much WAS me.

Again, life settled down for a bit until I noticed Minako pulling away from me. Very withdrawn, no more date of the week, it was odd. Then one day it seemed as though a weight had been lifted from her shoulders, but she still couldn't look me in the eyes. A few months went by and when she still couldn't be left alone in the room with me, I snapped. What can I say? I'm confrontational like that. Of course, with what she had to tell me, I could understand why she'd been so nervous.

I gaped at her. I remember that. Minako had kissed Ami too now? More than once? She admitted to me then that it had started because of Rei and I asked if she'd even kissed Rei yet. She hadn't and I told her that I would tell Rei myself if she didn't. That night, I wore Haruka out. And a week later, I walked into the Crown and saw Minako and Rei holding hands. They both blushed at me and I just rolled my eyes and sat next to Ami. It was about damn time.

I didn't have much time to think about who I was or wasn't kissing after that. The fight for Crystal Tokyo had begun and my Kami was it a fight. I don't think I spent a day of the next few years not injured in some way or another. One week I was out on patrol with Haruka and she decided she just wanted to head back early. We'd already cleared our section so I was cool with it. Of course, when she came to me a few days later and told me what happened when she got home, I was decidedly not cool.

I shouldn't have been jealous. Ami wasn't mine, and even if she had been, everyone was connecting with each other. Minako had pretty much threatened Rei and I into a few times. And I can understand why Ami was so enthralled with her for so long. That girl can kiss. And Minako and Rei, most often together from what I understood, went to Setsuna regularly. Obviously, Haruka had no problem sharing Michiru with Ami and Rei at times. And Michiru was fine with sharing Haruka with Minako and I. So I don't think that I was jealous that Haruka had gotten to kiss Ami, I was just pissed that I hadn't. I spent the better part of the next few months petulantly ignoring her. Until one day both she and Michiru found me and put an end to it. I couldn't help but wonder as the sea senshi pinned me down, if this was anything like kissing Ami . They were after all both water senshi. But being the little psychic that she was she just smiled at me and said 'Not even close.'

The next few years were bitter sweet. The Wars were nearly over and Usagi and Mamoru had ascended to Serenity and Endymion. Crystal Tokyo was being built. Our life's work, all our struggles, and finally here was what we had all been fighting for. That was also when Ami's Mother died. It was so hard for her, and hard for me not to be able to be there for her. When my parents died I was lost, and I knew what Ami had to be going through. I tried to see her, every day for over a month. Everyone did. But she pushed us all away. It was tearing Serenity up.

The day before I'd made up my mind to just camp inside Ami's living room until she talked, Serenity commed me and told me to go to Ami's. I was so terrified that something had happened I ran the whole way. When I got there though, Serenity was sitting calmly on Ami's bed, my little genius passed out on her lap. She smiled at me and said that Ami would be okay, but that'd she appreciate me being here when she woke up. I pulled up a chair as my Princess left and sat vigil until she woke up. I could see the light in her eyes when she smiled at me and I pulled her close.

I was now acutely aware of what I was missing with Ami. She was pretty much on my mind twenty-four seven and all I wanted was to be close to her. Not that we weren't close. We slept over with each other all the time. Often she'd be curled up in my arms all night and I'd just hold her against me. No shyness at all when she'd wake up. But the Wars were over, life had settled, and I wanted to share it with her. Of course, I hadn't quite figured out what to do about it. And before I could, Minako told me the latest gossip. My little Ami had taken up with Setsuna. Naturally, I was a bit disheartened by now. I mean, she and I had been the closest friends since we were fourteen, and I was literally the ONLY one left who hadn't kissed her? This went on for almost a year, and I knew I pulled away from her. I couldn't figure out what was so wrong with me that she would go to everyone but me. So when it finally came, I wasn't expecting it at all.

We were in my kitchen, I'd offered to cook her dinner. She still didn't eat anything but sandwiches if you let her. Plus it was freezing outside and ice senshi or not, I was not about to let her walk home. I went to make us tea once dinner was done and we were settled into my couch, and she actually pulled out a pouch of her own blend and asked if I would make that. It was odd, but I did. The tea smelled familiar I remember and I asked where she'd gotten it. When she said Setsuna had made it just for her, I have to admit I was tempted to spill it on purpose. But, being the dutiful, or whipped as Haruka would put it, friend that I was I brought it to her and asked what it was. I was floored when she told me it was cinnimint! Setsuna had apparently out the blue found this combination just for her. Inside I made a face. Yeah, out of the blue my ass.

One day, around the time I first heard about Setsuna and Ami, I was with Rei and Minako. I asked them what kissing her was like. They found it hard to describe, but finally, Rei put it into words. That she was soft, and sweet. That she had a huge heart and you could feel her love for you. That no matter what kind of mood you were in, playful or serious or if you were in need of support or love, she would respond to you in exactly the way you needed. And she tasted cool always. Which was when they started talking about her and the mints she used to pop like an addict. I remember buying them for her by the bagful and the gleeful little smile she'd get on her face. Sadly the little mints had gone extinct around the time the Wars began, but kissing her then with the taste of cinnimint on her tongue was truly a thing to behold. I remember getting that feeling of being watched and turning around to see a ghost of a swish of green hair disappear around the corner.

So she'd heard their description and gone and made the cinnimint tea? The full Ami experience. I almost laughed. I guess I wasn't the only one chasing her. But then I stopped laughing as she sipped her tea, and I was transfixed when her tongue licked her lips after, the minty smell in the air. And just like that, I had to know. She noticed the change in me right away. She was always so perceptive. She also noticed that I was pretty much just staring at her lips. She giggled and put her cup down, and I looked up into those deep blue eyes that I'd dreamed about for years. She blushed a little, laughing at herself I guess, and I did too. We'd both been rounding bases with the entirety of the senshi team for decades, and we were nervous about this? But I was. So nervous and excited and flustered I just sat there. She moved first, reaching out to tuck some hair behind my ear, and I know I shivered when her hand touched my cheek. She whispered something so close I could feel her breath on my lips. My world was buzzing by then so all I could make out was 'took us so long' and then everything disappeared as she touched her lips to mine.

I remember everything about that moment, and yet I can recall nothing. Every little movement, every breath, every sound I etched in my brain, but I have no clue how long we lasted, or how she ended up in my lap, her arms around my neck. Being with her was unlike anything I'd experienced, with any of the others. She was every bit as responsive as Rei had described. She could tell how nervous I was and she was so sweet, so tender with me. It didn't take me long to catch up to her though. And I will never forget how she tasted with the cinnimint on her tongue. It was surreal. My whole body was tingling and I lost myself in her entirely. To this day she has that power over me. One word, one look, one touch and I am hers. Even if I am whipped, I don't care because it is for her. She can own me without even trying, and I'm pretty sure she doesn't try. She has the same effect on everyone else. I talked about it, well bragged really, for weeks after and each scout agreed completely. Ami has no idea exactly how addictive she is.

However long later we finally pulled away and sat there together, trying to breath and just being close. I was giddy that she was as out of breath as I was. I smiled at her, and saw in her eyes the same thing I'd been feeling for her for decades. She just kissed me again and with all the courage I had left I stood up with her in my arms and carried her into the bedroom. No hesitation, no insecurity, no second thoughts. It was just, right. It was absolutely perfect. She is absolutely perfect, and every day that she is with me, or comes home to me, or looks up into my eyes and says those three words that I can feel radiating off of her, I am reminded of that.

It's been a few years since that first night together. She'll be home soon and I have a new recipe bubbling away on the stove for her. A candy recipe I found in some old archives. A recipe for cinnimint starbursts. I can't help the stupid grin I know is splitting my face wide open. It's going to be an amazing night.


End file.
